Concern over unsafe practices at care home

Moving to its current site in 1967, the clinic has been in existence for 120 years.

Published:13:26Monday 03 October 2016

Inspectors found unsafe practices at a Southgate nursing home, with one individual’s symptoms persisting because they did not receive important medication every day.

Park Lodge Care Solutions, a care home in Goffs Park Road, Crawley, was told to improve following recent inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Two inspections took place in July and August this year, with results published on Tuesday, September 20.

The home was given an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’, the third highest of the four scores the CQC can award.

Park Lodge, part of Allied Healthcare, also scored ‘requires improvement’ for three of the five subcriteria the CQC examines: ‘is the service safe?’, ‘is the service effective’ and ‘is the service well-led?’.

The home was rated ‘good’ for the remaining two categories: ‘is the service caring?’ and ‘is the service responsive’.

Park Lodge can support ten people who require support with their personal care. The service specialises in supporting younger adults with learning disabilities, according to the report.

In the report, inspectors praised the staff’s ‘fun approach to their work with people’ and that they ‘took care to maintain and promote people’s well-being and happiness’.

However while most people told inspectors they felt safe, according to the report, ‘medicines were not always managed safely’.

Some administration records contained gaps and one person was administered their medicine on an ‘as and when needed’ basis instead of daily as the doctor had perscribed. Inspectors reported that ‘the symptoms that they had been prescribed to alleviate had continued.’

Staff at the home were asked to send the CQC a report detailing any action they will take in areas where regulations were not being met.

Substantial effort was made to reach Allied Healthcare for comment but none was made available.

The full report for Park Lodge Care Solutions is available on the CQC website.

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